Travel Blog of the Week...Travel Betty.

How can you resist a travel blog with a tag line ‘Encouraging Fearless Independent Travel For Women'?

Travel Betty is written by Tracy Deluca, a freelance copywriter from San Francisco, who is, in her own words, ‘a woman in love and lust with travel’ And it shows.

I really like the 30 second vacation series where Travel Betty posts a 30 second video featuring off the wall topics like ‘making fortune cookies in Chinatown’ and ‘Santa Cruz Still Weird’.

And then there’s the Spa Betty Series….

Energizing and entertaining, the Travel Betty blog makes reading about travel fun

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Note from Liz:

This is the last 'Travel Blog of the Week' for a while. There simply isn't enough time anymore to read and review all the wonderful travel blogs out in the blogosphere.

However, if anyone wants to write a 'travel blog of the week' review, I'm more than happy to let you post it here. Only catch - the blog you review cannot be your own.

Send reviews to kiwiwriter at xtra (dot) co (dot) nz with subject title 'travel blog review'.

Travel Writing Miscellanea...

A few interesting things that I've come across this week...

Oz Traveller has put together A Round-up of Reaction to Lonely Planet’s Rogue Author Thomas Kohnstamm, covering reaction from a variety of bloggers from World Hum to Perceptive Travel.

Want to submit a travel article to the New York Times? Then you should read this Q&A with Stuart Emmrich, travel editor.

Just what a travel writer needs...a Wi-Fi Umbrella. No joke. Japanese company Pileus has created an umbrella that "... has a large screen on the top surface, a built-in camera, a motion sensor, GPS, and a digital compass, and it provides two main functions; A Social Photo-sharing and A 3D Map Navigation."



You can buy one through Sharper Image.

Travel Writer Pico Iyer talks…

About ‘living for a week in LAX Airport’…




About the mobile village and reads from his book Global Soul…

Guest Post Friday: Finding Your Niche by Shannon Hurst Lane..

Welcome to Guest Post Friday: Today travel writer Shannon Hurst Lane writes about Finding Your Niche. Shannon is a Traveling Mamas blogger and author of The Definitive Guide to Travel Writing.


Finding Your Niche by Shannon Hurst Lane

There are many types of travel writers out there. It is important to write about what you know. You can write about what you love to do, and if you do it often, you are already an expert. You just need to share your experience and knowledge with others.

The first step in deciding which genre you specialize is to find the kind you most enjoy. You can even become an expert on a specific area. The best place to start is your own backyard. That’s how I started. My initial articles were published in my local paper and were about weekend getaways within driving distance. Become an expert on your area and you will have set the foundation for your travel writing career.

To be successful in the travel writing industry, you need to find the place where you fit. Ask yourself the following questions and write your answer down on a sheet of paper.

Where do I travel on vacation? Do I like beaches or mountains? Domestic or international? Am I a cruise aficianado?

What activities do I like to do when I travel? Golf? Go hiking? Do I enjoy fishing? Museums? History? Adventure? Spas?

What is my age group?

Do I have children? Do they reside at home? Am I able to travel at the spur of the moment or do I need a few week’s or month’s notice?

Do I own a Recreational Vehicle(RV) or go camping often?

What is my income? Am I a luxury or budget traveler?

There are many travel writing categories or genres. The following are a few of the most popular:

Luxury
Cruises
Adventure
Student
Family
Senior
Business
Golf Getaways
Romantic
Destination Weddings
Spa
Wine and Food (Epicurean)

So if you can find your niche, you'll be able to find your way in this crazy industry of travel writing.

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Don't forget - if you have something to say about writing, you can send it through to Guest Post Friday.

Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...

1. Why the New York Times Killed its Weekly Travel Essay

2. Recognizing Your Inner-Boss: 10 Breeds and How to Survive With Them

3. Top 5 Secrets Travel Writers Won’t Tell

4. How to Write About Old News and Be Original

5. Freelance Writing vs. Freelance Blogging: What’s the Difference

Plus Two:

10 Productivity Hacks for Freelancers

Lonely Planet writer trashes the travel writing genre

Interview with a Travel Writer...Angela K. Nickerson.

Today we are talking with Angela K Nickerson who is in the midst of a Virtual Book Tour to promote her recently published travel book 'A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome'.

Published by the Roaring Forties Press, this beautifully complied book looks like a coffee table book and acts like a travel guide and history and art lesson all rolled into one.

Angela is a teacher, a writer, and a tour guide. And she has just recently joined the blogging ranks with her new blog Just Go.


Did you always want to be a writer? How did you get started in writing?

When I was a student, I loved to write. And I truly loved research. I often went overboard with my research papers doing far more work than was required because I was inspired and interested and just couldn’t stop myself. However, I really didn’t translate that into a career path. In my mind writers worked at newspapers or wrote fiction or poetry. I knew that I didn’t have the news bug. I was not prepared to be a starving novelist. And there are even fewer jobs for poets. So, I became a teacher – and my students did a lot of research!

However, teaching others to write didn’t satisfy my own desire to write. I found myself doing more and more journaling and fantasizing about “becoming” a writer. In reality I already was. I was writing all the time. I just wasn’t earning any money doing it. Over the course of a few years I transitioned out of the physical classroom (though I still teach writing privately) and started with small, local publications. I ended up with a column in a monthly magazine as well as several other publications that regularly featured my work… and then I got a book deal.

My journey has been a very slow one. And I am impatient to support myself completely as a writer. That is coming, but I do still have a “day job.” My goal is to be able to write full time within a few more years.


Which travel writers and/or travel books have influenced you?

I love travel narrative. And there are some amazing travel writers out there who do remarkable work. One of my favorites is Australia’s Brian Thacker. I have escorted groups through Europe for several years, and Brian’s book Rule No. 5: No Sex on the Bus is a hilarious and rather realistic view of the debauchery and wildness that can come with SOME tour groups. I also truly admire Tim Cahill and Bill Bryson. And Pete McCarthy, an English writer, captures people and places remarkably well. Thomas Cahill and Tony Perrottet are also are truly gifted. They focus on history, but their books also make for great travel reading. I particularly enjoyed Perrottet’s book The Naked Olympics and Cahill’s Sailing the Wine Dark Sea.

I look at this list and see that there are no women listed. There are many fine women out there traveling and writing, but the writers that resonate with me tend to be male. I find that to be rather peculiar!


Tells us about the evolution of your book 'A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome' ? Where did the idea come from ? How hard was the concept to sell to a publisher?

I found this project by accident, providence, divine intervention, and chance. As a teacher I had developed a course called “The Bible as Literature.” I taught the major stories of the Bible, and I used the work of Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists as the “hook.” My students studied the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, compared Davids by Donatello and Michelangelo, and explored the stories told in Ghiberti’s doors, the Gates of Paradise.

After I’d left the classroom, I came upon a call for proposals. Roaring Forties Press had begun a new series of books, the ArtPlace books, and they were looking for writers. Immediately I knew that Michelangelo and Rome would be the perfect fit. I wrote the book proposal, and it took about a year to hammer out the details and sign a contract. But now, three years later, the book is on the shelves!


So is it a history book, an art book, or a travel guide?

All of the above!

Rome is a huge and layered city. When I take groups there, so often I see tourists wandering around looking dazed and overwhelmed. And I totally understand why! There are thousands of years of history piled together in a living city filled with traffic and tourists. And while the typical guidebook is good for some things, it does not help the average traveler make decisions about what to see or to draw connections between various locations and sites.

A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome solves that problem. There are maps and locations, and it includes all of the primary sites to see in Rome plus so many great places to go that are off the beaten path. However, there are no hotels or restaurants listed. And it is written so that you can enjoy it equally in your living room or in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo and his work provide the lens through which the reader sees Rome.


The book is beautifully laid out with plenty of photographs and maps? Did you do any of the photography?

I took many of the photographs, actually, including the image on the cover (of which I am particularly proud). I love photography, and Rome is a fantastic subject. I learned a lot about taking photos for books in the process.



I see that you are taking small groups on tours of Michelangelo’s Italy in October and November?† Do you do much tour guiding?

I do! I’ve worked for tour companies and also take small groups on my own. It is a way to indulge the teacher in me, I suppose. The trips that I take on my own never have more than 10-12 people. I tell my clients that traveling with me is like traveling with a very knowledgeable friend. I set up the travel arrangements. I set the itinerary. I know good restaurants and shops and what to see in each museum. I provide a little structure. But my trips are not bus tours. We walk the cities. We stay in the heart of town. And my feelings are never hurt when people deviate from our set itinerary. In fact, when that happens I know that I have done my job: my clients are comfortable, intrigued, and inspired.

For more information you can check out my website.


What advice would you give to someone who wants to break into writing?

I could, I’d drop everything and go work for a magazine or a publishing house for a few years. The writers who are most successful started in publishing and developed relationships with editors. They have a much easier time selling their work to people they already know.

For those of you who, like me, can’t do that: start small. There are lots of local publications out there that won’t pay much, but writing for them will give you a body of work, experience meeting deadlines, and great opportunities and contacts. And don’t limit yourself in what you can and will write about. I specialize in travel writing because that’s what I love, but I do personal profiles, business profiles, and religious writing as well. No writer can do everything well, but developing a broader portfolio will help you to make a living faster.

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Thanks Angela for including Write to Travel as a whistle stop on your virtual tour. Will be following your journey through the blogosphere

Next stop on the virtual tour is Nerd's Eye View tomorrow for the Micro Travel Writing Workshop...

Early reviews of A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome:

FOREWORD MAGAZINE BOOK REVIEW

"Most travel guides are jammed with star ratings and brief descriptions of hotels, restaurants, shopping, and nightlife. By contrast, this book is full of art images, maps, and summary sidebars ranging in topics from the Reformation to madrigals. Through biography and history, the author creates a unique travel guide to Rome, focusing on the art and times of the artist Michelangelo."

She cried at the chapel -- then she wrote the book

"Almost seven years ago, Angela Nickerson, a teacher and art lover, first walked into Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. Like millions before, she was overwhelmed by its beauty and scale and had to wipe away tears. But unlike the millions, that first visit inspired her to write a book: A Journey Into Michelangelo's Rome"

Everything you wanted to know about Press trips…

Well, maybe not everything. But there’s a couple of interesting articles over at Inkthinker and Notes in the Margin that can fill you in on the how’s and why’s of Press Trips.

Written by Roy A. Barnes, a travel writer from Wyoming, they are definitely worth a read...

Guest Article — How Writers Can Score Press Trips, Part I: Landing A Press Trip

How Writers Can Score Press Trips, Part II: Things To Keep In Mind Before Attending

To press trip or not is a controversial issue amongst travel writers. When Sheila Scarborough from Family Travel and Perceptive Travel Blog wrote a guest post here last year, it brought quite a negative response from some writers on the Media Bistro bulletin board.

Personally, I think that there is a place for press trips and FAM trips and that it is up to each individual writer to look into the ethic and moral issues involved in taking such a trip. Traveling and experiencing places to write about is not cheap (especially when you live on the other side of the world). As long as you are honest, fair, and true in your writing, press trips should be an acceptable means of gathering information.

What do you think?